The government has been in office for more than eight months yet still it has not named heads to some key missions, despite all the talk about the role they could play in encouraging investment to this country. Foreign Minister Hugh Todd has conceded that appointments are still to be made in Brazil, the UK and Qatar in addition to some other states, although he said that the administration had inherited several vacant positions for overseas diplomatic representatives. That in and of itself, however, would hardly explain the delay.
Technically, of course, it is the President who appoints ambassadors, not the Foreign Minister, although normally it would be expected that the two would be in accord on the identity of a candidate. The Minister in this case is a novice in the post, although that is probably less important than the fact that he does not have major PPP connections. The person in Takuba Lodge with those is Mr Robert Persaud, whose duties as Foreign Secretary have never been disclosed to anyone, despite the fact he has no foreign affairs experience. Inevitably, therefore, the suspicion lingers that he is the one with the real authority in the Ministry, rather than Mr Todd.
For his part the Foreign Minister told this newspaper that the process of vetting and selecting diplomats was a “comprehensive” one and that the objective was to make sure that suitable placements were made. “At the end of the day, the representatives in those capitals would have to ensure that they are able to push our national policies there,” he was quoted as saying.
Exactly how much vetting was done in the case of the major appointment so far made is questionable. Whatever other talents Mr Charandass Persaud might possess, diplomatic expertise is not among them. As one of our editorials last month said, his accreditation as Guyana’s High Commissioner to India appeared like a purely political appointment, and would be seen in local circles as his reward for casting the vote which brought down the APNU+AFC government in December 2018.
Clearly there was no vetting either of former Prime Minister Sam Hinds, who is tipped to become Guyana’s Ambassador to the United States, although in this instance there was no need for it; his qualities are already known to the President as well as to his Freedom House associates. That said, if he is selected it should be mentioned that appointing a former president to an ambassadorial post is a highly unorthodox practice, since at one point in his career all government servants, including heads of missions, would have come under him.
The administration probably considers the major task in Washington is keeping the US politically onside, but since they already have lobbyists there, the role of an ambassador in that regard may not be so important to them. And in terms of the optics, they probably think it is an advantage that Mr Hinds is an African Guyanese, especially after the fiasco of Dr Roger Luncheon’s times. Mr Hinds does have some level of experience dealing with business matters during his long stint as prime minister, but in any case, the view might be that assistance in this department could always be provided in the form of a commercial attaché.
What is rather more problematic is the fact that it is this country’s ambassador in Washington who is our representative at the Organisation of American States. In these days of live border issues it is absolutely essential that whoever fills the post is fully au fait with our boundary situation and its complex history, as well as having a sound background in Latin American affairs. The present incumbent, Mr Riyad Insanally, a French and Spanish speaker and career diplomat, qualifies in those areas, but they are not fields in which Mr Hinds’s strengths lie. Our boundary is too important to allow anyone the indulgence of learning on the job. While Mr Persaud and Mr Hinds cannot be compared, if this appointment is made it too will be seen as a form of reward – in this instance for the former PM’s devoted service over many years.
The one career diplomat who it has been reported will be named as Guyana’s Ambassador to China is An Yin Choo, currently this country’s Consul General in Toronto. She once served as First Secretary in the Guyana Embassy in Beijing. Apart from her, as said above, the nation waits to discover who will be identified for important countries like Brazil (where no ambassador could take up residence for the time being in any case because of the pandemic), or Qatar, where a new embassy is to be opened and for which money was quoted in the budget − or a number of other postings. “We are working very hard in ensuring that we can have those vacant appointments that we’ve inherited, filled,” said the Minister; “It is something that we are giving a lot of attention to.” If so, it seems to be a case of making haste slowly.
One has never had the feeling that the PPP ever took the Ministry of Foreign Affairs very seriously. In the early days it seemed to think that too much tippling of sherry went on at diplomatic cocktail parties, and the amount of money expended on the ministry should be slashed. Furthermore, it regarded Takuba Lodge’s main function under the previous regime as providing the PNC, and Burnham in particular, with political cover, and with that in view one way and another terminated a significant number of very competent officers in the early days. In reality it was possibly one of the more professional of the ministries, and began life with a “cause” as Sir Shridath Ramphal once described it, namely, the need to preserve our territorial integrity.
The PPP/C has continued to see the necessity of controlling the Ministry politically, and since the powers-that-be don’t intend to give a great deal of latitude to their heads of mission, they can treat these posts as ‘rewards’, something which the previous government was not immune to either. In other words, by and large they no more apply the meritocratic principle here than they do in other spheres of government.
It might be worth them remembering that Guyana’s standing in the world and its capacity to influence others, whether to invest or express support in relation to the border or whatever else, initially depends on the competency of their representatives in the missions. But first they have to appoint those representatives. “Some of these things can take time because we are not only dealing with diplomatic postings but we are dealing with many other national issues as well,” said the Minister. But eight-and-a-half months appears an inordinately long time to be pondering the question of suitable candidates.
